“That’s what you said yesterday and the day before. FYI, nothing has happened yet,” Nick said sarcastically as he looked down at the map, turning it one way then the other. His frown turned into a glare as he studied the wrinkled paper. Refusing to look Sarah in the eyes, he continued mocking her opinion. “This isn’t the Dhark Valley with werewolves and sasquatch attacking us around every tree.”
Sarah clenched her jaw and sucked in a calming breath. It didn’t help. “Hello, déjà vu. You do remember what happened the last time you said something like that, don't you?” she asked her frustrating mate in a deadly soft voice, gently poking at him, intentionally trying to irritate him. Honestly, she didn’t know what got into her. “Does a big explosion ring any bells in your thick skull?”
His growl was the only answer she received.
For ten solid minutes, the group argued.
Beth’s accent - a weird Southern inflection crossed with a Scottish burr - thickened her voice. “I don’t believe I'm saying this, but I agree with the exile.” Her amber eyes flashed toward Sarah, while keeping Mitch in her line of vision. “That valley is not safe. My hair is standing on end.”
Mitch laughed at her, causing the girl’s face to flame with anger. “You'd need to hang by your toes to have that bird's nest you call hair stand on end.”
Sarah clenched her jaw to keep from laughing. He was correct. The girl’s brown and gold streaked hair dropped to her waist.
“My instinct,” Beth emphasized her sixth sense, “is screaming danger. Obviously, as a halfling you've lost that Sídhí trait.”
Mitch growled, long and low. His sharp fangs, glistening with venom, lengthened as his six-foot plus frame loomed over the short shapeshifter.
Nick broke the deadlock. He looked at Sarah; his eyes reflected a flash of pain-filled distrust. “I won't go anywhere two residents of the Dhark Valley tell me to go.”
He turned and stalked toward the shadowy trail that gave her the creeps.
Sarah sucked in a sharp breath and waited all of two heartbeats before following her obstinate mate down the cool trail, refusing to let him out of her sight. The minute she stepped onto the trail, she smelled Clarisse’s faint scent. Well, at least she found the missing vampire.
____________
Prince Mackenzie, better known as Mac, flew through Dragon Valley. Sunlight warmed coal black wings edged with a dusting of gold and burgundy. As always, eerie music hummed through the back of his mind.
Flying between the dimensional layers, no one noticed him as he skimmed above the dense forest. Going In Between, the ability to disappear inside the invisible strata layered between each valley and earth, made Mac’s job much easier, especially when he was also hiding from Sarah. She’d have his wings if she realized he disobeyed her order to stay out of Dragon Valley.
He understood her concern. Certain dragon clans had the ability to see anyone hiding within the In Between. The dragon gift had been a great benefit as Clan vampires and dragons joined forces to hunt down and destroy the last few umbra years before. Just thinking of the hideous, dark furred creatures set his teeth on edge.
Far below, a flash of movement caught his attention. He dived into the canopy of leaves, grinning as if he played a game. To him, flying was the greatest joy in his life. The freedom of the wind brushing through his sensitive feathers helped him ignore the constant music drumming through his brain as it tried to drive him mad.
Swerving around a thick branch, he maneuvered through the tight maze surrounding the large trees. Since he was In Between, following the twisted path wasn’t necessary, but it was a lot more fun to go around the branches instead of through them. The aerobatic exercise was also good training, something akin to child’s play for the reflexes of a six-thousand year old phoenix, not that he was that old, but his body was.
As he neared the ground, he watched a young woman move silently through the trees. Dressed in jeans, well-worn work boots, and a dark gray t-shirt she stood out like a sore thumb to his enhanced senses. As she eased through the thick foliage, her head never ceased moving, searching for something, but what, he couldn’t guess.
A breeze swept by him, carrying a faint scent of vampires, elves, halflings, and mundane humans - probably shifters. Younger phoenix couldn’t smell beyond the In Between barrier. It was a rare ability that had developed with age.
Thankfully, Sarah would never catch his scent in return, not as long as he stayed In Between. She might be powerful, but that wasn’t a talent she had been graced with.
The dragon’s mundane scent blended with the teenagers. That’s when he realized the girl was tracking his liege and her cabin mates, a soft growl rumbled from his chest. He stalked forward, stopping at the girl’s side
The girl froze. Her head snapped around and glared right at Mac.
Mac cursed. Bad luck hung around him like a wet blanket. He swore he must’ve made a fairy mad and they jinxed him, because only he could have such rotten luck as to stumble across one of the few dragons that could see In Between.
Before the dragon shifter had time to change shapes, before she could utter a single word, a dart struck her in the throat. Eyes wide, the girl grabbed for her sword, but it was too late. Whatever concoction filled the dart acted swiftly. Her eyelids slid shut.
Lee DeLeigh, a dragon guardian, stalked through the trees. The man had been on Trellick Valley’s terrorist watch list for several years.
The golden haired man ignored Mac, not surprising since the male dragon was from the DeLeigh Clan and couldn’t see In Between. He knelt beside the girl, feeling her neck, probably checking the strength of her pulse. With a grunt of satisfaction, the shifter pulled a package of plastic zip ties from his belt.
After restraining the girl with a set of ties, Guardian Lee pulled a cell phone out of his shirt pocket. “Target four down. Transmitter set.”
Without a backward glance, the man trotted into the forest.
Mac had never heard of doing such a thing, not when any Sídhí could snap the thick plastic with a bit of pressure. Curious, he approached the girl and fingered the plastic tie. Understanding was immediate. Some ingenuous person, most likely a fairy, blended synth crystal with plastic, creating a lightweight restraint that would never break.
Mac narrowed his eyes, trying to decide whether to follow Lee or stick near the girl. Lee might take additional victims, but if Mac stayed with the girl, whoever picked her up might lead him right to a nest of Khr’Vurr.
The last possibility played a dual role. Most important, it kept him on Sarah’s good side since monitoring the terrorist organization was part of his duty as head of her personal security team.
____________
Hours later, Sarah and her cabin mates enjoyed the cool water of a large pool. Actually, it was several interconnecting pools fed by a dozen small waterfalls as they crashed down the side of a mountainous wall of rock.
The moment the group of teens arrived in the small valley - and the glowing hot spring of Big Bertha was nowhere in sight - Sarah had argued against staying. She'd been out-voted. Everyone except the two shifters voted to spend the night.
She hadn't been surprised when Beth and Brianna left the group in a huff, returning up the same trail that brought them into the valley. Anything Beth said, Brianna automatically agreed with.
Sinking deeper into the refreshing water, pleasure surrounded her.
Her instinct, a constant pressure at the back of her head, kept insisting there was danger, but nothing had jumped them. The peace of the little valley was an appreciated break from Nick’s stony attitude, not that a good workout wouldn’t be just as helpful, but she was hot and hurt all over.
She leaned against the smooth surface of a boulder, a large one that shaded her from the fierce glare of the sun. The cool rock felt wonderful against her burnt skin. Too much time spent under the hot sun had turned her skin red, tiny blisters had already appeared on the top of her shoulders. It was healing quickly, but her sk
in still felt like it was on fire.
She watched Katie and Jared leave the pool hand-in-hand to set-up the tents.
Nick surged up out of the water and water flew everywhere as he tried dunking Emily, his younger cousin. They horsed around for several minutes, playing in the sunlit water.
He laughed at something Emily said and glanced toward Sarah. Their eyes met and he frowned. As if frustrated, he ran a hand through wet hair and turned away from her. Water glistened across the rippling muscles of his back. A single drip slid down his spine, curving along places she dreamed of touching.
Air shifted. Her instinct screamed danger. Her eyes snapped up, but it was too late. A large creature, a black mite with arched legs, jumped from the high cliffs, aiming a sharp stinger at Nick's head.
All of her training went out the window. Instead of attacking the dangerous creature, she threw her body between the deadly mite and her mate.
The sharp stinger slammed into her back. Pain exploded in her body as the six-inch stinger released toxic venom into her bloodstream.
The last thing she heard was Nick’s roar of fury.
Black engulfed her as the poison from the stinger raced through her body, knocking her unconscious.
____________
Sarah stirred, instantly aware of the cold silence surrounding her. She didn’t know how much time had passed. It could have been hours or days.
Idiot, she was an idiot. She had reacted like a baby cadet, not the veteran warrior she was.
She growled and tried to open her eyes. They wouldn't budge. She couldn't move, could barely breathe. Something bound her arms and legs tight against her body. The bloody mites had wrapped her up in a cocoon, keeping her fresh to eat later.
She extended her claws, slashing and wiggling her hand until she could move her arm freely. She worked it back and forth, cutting the shroud that covered her.
A growl of fear rumbled through her and grew harsh. She couldn't smell Nick, didn't know if he lived or not. Fear grew in her belly, sending chills of dread racing through her.
She struggled out of the remaining threads that wrapped around her, yanking them off her face. The darkness remained pitch black. Stale air greeted her.
She was in a crypt. She growled. Her fury grew with each second.
She rolled onto her stomach and slammed her fist into the wall at her head. She knew the feeding habit of mites. They stung their prey then wrapped the paralyzed victims in a fiber that kept them immobile. If that wasn't enough, the spider-like creatures sealed them into feeding tubes.
Knowing the mites sealed each tube with fiber-laced mud, she hit the end of the tube again. She heard a crack. Rearing back, she slammed against the mud blocking her exit.
The hard mud shattered.
Reaching for the edge, she pulled her body out of the tube.
She took in her surroundings with a sweeping glance. Another wretched cave met her eyes, large and flat. The huge cavern had weird holes in the wall behind her. It looked like a giant honeycomb, a honeycomb that held the living bodies of the mite's victims. Her growl increased. She was growing to hate Dragon Valley and its surplus of wretched caves.
To the side, standing still as statues, appeared to be a rescue party of four startled teenagers. Jared, Katie, Beth, and Brianna held odd, blue branches and looked at her as if she had finally flipped out. They weren’t far from wrong. The fear surging through her overwhelmed all other thought. She had to find Nick before she completely lost it.
Her eyes dropped to the surrounding ground, taking in the scurrying bodies of a dozen harmless gray mites, a different species from the type that attacked her. The larger mites were nowhere in sight. Farther away, her eyes fell on a single shrouded figure. From the size of the cocoon, she knew it was Nick. Hope surged through her.
Snarling, she extended her claws, killing every little gray mite that got between her and her mate.
Within a minute, she knelt at Nick's black shrouded body. She slashed the fibers, tearing the black silk from his body. Pulling him close, she ripped the stingers out of his back.
The thump of his heart made her shudder and hold him even closer. She'd nearly lost him. She couldn't make it past that horrifying thought. She wanted to port him to safety, but that wasn’t possible, not with Beth and Brianna present.
She didn’t know when the two shifters had showed back up. They had obviously arrived in perfect time for a rescue, but not so much for Sarah’s idea to port everyone to safety.
Mitch and Emily were unconscious, same as Nick. Paralyzed by the mite poison, they would never know if she ported them out of the cave, but the shapeshifters really put a kink in her idea. If Beth wasn’t such a critical part of the political structure of Haven Valley, Sarah would make them permanently disappear. Problem solved.
Forcing herself to calm down, she began listening to the others around her. They had already decided what to do. Sitting back, she let Jared take control of the situation. It wouldn’t hurt anything and it would take the spotlight off her dramatic escape from the mite tube.
“I’ll take Mitch,” Jared said with a grunt of exertion as he picked-up the large halfling, settling the deadweight over his shoulder.
Katie and Beth had one of Emily's arms.
“Can you and Brianna drag Nick?” Jared asked Sarah, lips twitching. He was a horrid actor.
Wrapping her hand around Nick’s limp wrist, Sarah nodded her agreement. The teens were halfway to the tunnel leading toward the surface when Sarah smelled Clarisse. It was a fleeting scent, but one she couldn't ignore.
“I caught Clarisse’s scent,” she called out. According to the multiple groans she heard, she wasn’t the only one who had completely forgotten about the red-haired vampire.
“All of you get out of here. I’ll find her and get her out,” Sarah said, gritting her teeth in frustration.
“What about Nick?” Beth questioned her, nodding to the inert figure Sarah protectively stood over.
“I’ll stay,” Brianna offered eagerly. “You can’t do it by yourself. You’ll still need help.”
“I was hoping Nick would wake-up by the time I found Clarisse,” Sarah said, eying the overly eager girl. She’d hoped to get rid of both shifters and port Nick to safety. Then she’d return, find Clarisse, and dump the little traitor in a cell under Trellick Castle. The girl’s scent had been all over the trail going into the valley.
Sarah had a sneaking suspicion the Clan Vampire had switched the warning signs going into the valley. No doubt, ordered to do so by her superior within the Khr’Vurr. “You have a chance to get out of here, take it while you can.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” Brianna said with a grin. The girl glanced at Beth, obviously seeking her friend's approval, before going any farther.
Jared's eyes narrowed at the exchange. He glanced at Sarah and shuddered visibly.
She smoothed her features, hoping no one else noticed her thirst for action. She was growing tired of the charade. She wanted a few necks to snap. A little deadly force would make her feel better, and be one-step closer to catching the Khr’Vurr.
“If you hear or see anything, leave Clarisse and get out,” Jared said, avoiding eye contact with her.
Yeah, she definitely needed to work on her impassive face. She couldn’t help it; her emotions were running too high.
She disliked staying behind, but had no choice, not after she smelled Clarisse. She didn't like the stuck-up Clan vampire, but she wouldn't leave the girl stuck in one of the mite's feeding tubes either. And since Brianna was tagging along, there’d be no dungeon cell in Clarisse’s near future.
The cavern swallowed the small scraping sounds as the other teens escaped the confining area. Without a backward glance, the group disappeared into the tunnel leading to the small, picturesque valley. Sarah hoped the teens didn't run into any mites. She couldn't race to save Jared and Katie, not this time, not with witnesses around.
Briefly, she considered calling Mac
to assist them.
Her slightly insane friend, and personal guard, would’ve hurried to her side at a moment’s notice, but as usual, too many factors kept her silent. Mac had the ability to hide what he truly was, but another – more important – reason for not calling the phoenix was his aptitude for finding trouble where none existed. Even the princeling admitted to being a magnet that attracted turmoil.
Sarah held her body stiff, standing pre-naturally still, silently ranting against her lack of options. Nothing new in that choice, she stayed hidden in plain sight. False truths surrounded her life, keeping her identity as Chi’Kehra a secret and not exposing Trellick Valley’s mysterious wonders of nature.
She was so sick of hiding. Unfortunately, she wasn’t experienced enough to confront the dhark lords of the empire, not if she wanted to win the war of all wars, a war that hovered on the horizon.
She knew a deadly confrontation approached. One of her guard’s – a two-thousand-year old phoenix by the name of Garrick – had a powerful gift of foresight. The man had foreseen the Sídhí war over-flow onto the mundane world. The glimpse of that blood soaked foretelling never wandered far from her mind.
Shoving her problems to the back of her brain, she gave Brianna a cold glance. She trusted the shapeshifter less than a rattlesnake, which was not at all.
Chapter - Gnomes
“Well?” Clarabelle demanded of the wrinkly-faced gnome.
Less than three feet tall, the yellow-eyed man was a carbon copy of the small Sídhí race of people. The bug-eating, cave-dwelling society was legendary for their practical jokes and sick humor. For the most part, she tolerated them. With the correct incentive, they were easily controlled. Complete obedience from the lesser race was all that mattered to her.
As Clarabelle’s large head neared his trembling form, she curled her lips in revulsion. Folds of the gnome’s pale, pasty colored skin quivered in fear. The little man ducked his head, showing her the proper respect she was due.
By reporting his failure, he showed a hint more intelligence than she believed him capable. She’d rather know if a plan needed readjusting before it was too late, not that she wouldn’t punish him for his failure. Fear was a great motivator.
Exile: Sídhí Summer Camp #3 Page 4
